The present invention generally relates to instruments that are capable of determining the status of various parameters and/or characteristics associated with electronic and/or electrical equipment, and more particularly, but without limitation, to instruments capable of testing the operational and/or functional parameters and/or characteristics of backplanes.
Generally described, a backplane is an electronic circuit board containing circuitry and/or slots (or sockets) into which additional electronic devices (normally found on other circuit boards or cards) can be interconnected. Functionally, the backplane operates as an interface between these devices and the other parts of a “system” (which may include as an example, but not as a limitation, the system's data and power distribution buses, as well as the backplane and the devices associated with the backplane).
Since the backplane provides the physical and electrical connections between the various system components, the backplane allows the system and its related components to electrically and/or electronically communicate. Therefore, it is highly desirable to ensure that the backplane is operating within its prescribed parameters and, if it is not, to also be able to quickly and effectively perform fault-analysis in order to return the system to service or to effectuate repairs when appropriate. And, while test systems that offer means for testing backplanes are currently available in the marketplace, many of these generally require the use of a personal computer (PC) or some other add-on to provide external processing capability. In this regard, while a PC-based configuration may provide a user with a wide variety of testing alternatives, many of these features may be unnecessary and, as a result, not needed in many testing environments. Furthermore, many of these test systems are also encumbered by other features and add-ons, which may also act as constraints to the test system, and which may further cause these test systems to be extremely complex to use, cumbersome, and/or costly. Therefore, a need remains for a low-cost, yet robust, backplane test system that is compact, easy-to-use, and relatively simple to manufacture.